Soul Mining [Original recording remastered]

is what has been happening to me since I bought this album as I hadn't listened to it since the mid 80s when I was a disgruntled teenager. Then, they lyrics seemed to match my complete confusion with those Thatcher years. Now, well into my 30s, this album sounds even more fabulous and the lyrics are still relevant in the Blair/Bush era. The lyrics, fusion of synthesizers and traditional fiddles and accordions produces a truly unique style, with some brilliant percussion. Johnson's voice has quite a harsh tone to it at times but it suits the lyrics totally. However, the highlight of the entire album is the fabulous, spine-tingling Uncertain Smile with Jools Holland on piano - turn the volume to full and it will give you goose bumps. It manages to sound so 80s and yet so now at the same time. This is music at its best and The The never enjoyed the mass popularity and acclaim they undoubtedly deserved. Superb.

The The is the - frankly awful - group name that the creative genius called Matt Johnson hides behind. `Soul Mining' is the greatest achievement by The The as it fully realises all of Matt Johnson's pent-up aggression and dissatisfaction with society and life itself, without descending too much into the cliché and hyperbole that hampered his later works.

Matt tackles some large subjects on this album and asks the kind of questions that we daren't ask; the struggle of coping with life itself, the frustrations of trying to love or be loved by someone and the battle to simply understand oneself. Matt Johnson looks into (mines) his own soul for the answers and the results are laid out in these songs.

`I've been waiting for tomorrow all my life' is the opening track. Against a heavy electro-beat Matt spews forth a stream of vitriol against almost everything - failed relationships, fairweather friends, radio stations, newspapers. He rails against the frustration of living in a society that expects adherence to the relentless work ethic - "keep working, keep talking". He doesn't feel part of this at all and wants something else but has been ground down so much that he doesn't know what he wants anymore - "My mind is now polluted and energy diluted".

The following track follows on in a similar theme but this time the angst is set against a beautiful Celtic-esque melody played on an accordian. `This is the day' talks about unfulfilled potential and the worry that time is slipping away to realise this potential. "You could have been anything, if you wanted". His youthful enthusiasm for life is fading fast and leaving little left but hope that the future will be different from the past. But despite the optimism of the tune, you know that the future isn't going to get better.

'That Sinking Feeling' takes a broader swipe at the state of society in general and how it is to blame for the disaffection he feels about life. He chants, "I'm just a symptom of the moral decay that's gnawing at the heart of the country". Towards the end of the song there is a great keyboard solo - reminiscent of Ray Manzanarek of the Doors - doing battle with a lead guitar.

The album contains a more restrained version of the classic, `Uncertain Smile' that was released as a single prior to the release of this album. There is a brilliant keyboard solo finale courtesy of Jools Holland. I always loved the original song that I had on 12" vinyl and never thought it would be bettered, but if anything this version improves on that. It's an amazing song, one of the finest ever written about unrequited, obesssional love for someone.

'Twilight hour' paints an engrossing, late-night picture of emotional turmoil. Against keenly matched 'tip-toeing' strings that build up the atmosphere and tension, a troubled soul ponders the state of a current relationship and considers revealing his repressed feelings of discontent to his partner but is racked with a paraniod fear of the consequences of taking such an action.

The title track, 'Soul Mining' is a beautifully observed description of the sense of emptiness that follows the end of a relationship. The lyrics are particularly poignant, "you were taken in by a heart of fools gold, now your drifting in circles in the depths of your soul".

The closing track, 'Giant' is a reflective piece that lasts over 9 minutes. Over a pulsating beat, Matt admits to being scared of Heaven and Hell and racked with self-doubt. The track ends in a chant that asks the question, 'How Can anyone know me, when I don't even know myself'. Do we really know who we are, are we destined for heaven or hell? It's a trademark The The song and a fitting ending to a fine album.

There are no answers here, but there is a joy in simply listening to someone who is doing his best to find the answers, any answers. I urge you to add this album to your music collection.

The fist time I think I ever felt I understood, or at least contenplated inner happiness was when I listened to this album on a bright, bright sunny day as a 15 year old. "you can't destroy your problems by destroying yourself". So I didn't. Soul Mining, whilst being and album of dangerous self doubt and questioning is wonderfully uplifting.

Soul Mining is a journey, a discovery of self. Matt Johnson through this album and the more globally aware Infected, shaped my world, who I am, where I am and how I got here. In the 15 years I've owned Soul Mining there have been some noteworthy contenders of direction and belief, particularly Portishead, but none have managed the mystical journey of self truth and more over self doubt that Johnson confronts us with in Soul mining

"How can anyone know me, when I don't even know myself" Johnson sings on the soul searching and challenging "Giant", a song that combines the mytstery of self discovery with the trerrace chanting and somewhat infectious "yeah, yeah, yeah". I'm nearly 30 and I still can't answer Giants most fundamental question. Johnson is a master of melancholy and it's something he has always aspired to, that someone could come up with such a lyrically competent album at such a young age is incredible, I belive Johnson was 17 when the thinking teenagers song of angst "Uncertain Smile" was written, a perfect ballad for formative teenage years of love and loss.

I enjoy the album differently now, reflection is a powerful tool and the lighter harmonies of Uncertain Smile and This is the Day
keep the reflection long enough to evoke memories of perhaps less comlicated times.